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OLPC Dealt Blow Venezuelan Government Order a Million Rival Laptops
Mon, 06 Oct 2008
The One Laptop Per Child foundation has been dealt a blow with the news that the Venezuelan government has placed an order for a million laptops with one of the foundation’s biggest rivals. Hugo Chavez’s government has ordered a million Magellan laptops, a version of the Intel Classmate computer . Having resigned from the OLPC in January citing disagreements with founder Nicholas Negroponte, Intel have since released the laptop which has been specifically designed for use in schools. The laptop, which operates a specially developed version of Linux, comes with inbuilt broadband connectivity and a digital camera .

The order is part of a $3 billion bilateral trade agreement with Portugal, who have already bought half a million of the Magellan machines. The deal will see laptops manufactured in Lisbon under license from Intel, who will provide low power Intel Atom chipsets .

The deal is a severe blow to the OLPC, who have recovered from a poor start to sell roughly 720,000 machines. The rising cost of the machines caused initial scepticism of the project, with the advertised $100 XO laptop actually retailing at $188, whilst several governments questioned the need for laptops in developing nations.